The Anything But The Lions NFL Thread

[Mulligan]

Former Michigan Panthers QB = bunch tots

[The Suburban Avenger]

Denver?

I thought he'd be better off in Tennessee.

[Andy]

Denver?

I thought he'd be better off in Tennessee.

They were ready to change the name of the team to the Tennessee (Whatever Peyton Manning wants). Crazy.

I thought Deadspin put it best about John Elway:

He won two Super Bowls and is the greatest player in Broncos history, which gave him the clout needed to take out his big balls and wipe them across Tim Tebow's chin.

http://deadspin.com/5894540/john-elway-has-brass-balls

[The Suburban Avenger]

Denver?

I thought he'd be better off in Tennessee.

They were ready to change the name of the team to the Tennessee (Whatever Peyton Manning wants). Crazy.

I thought Deadspin put it best about John Elway:

He won two Super Bowls and is the greatest player in Broncos history, which gave him the clout needed to take out his big balls and wipe them across Tim Tebow's chin.

http://deadspin.com/5894540/john-elway-has-brass-balls

Thinking it over, if Willis McGahee can put up the kind of numbers he did last season, maybe Denver isn't much of a reach. Defense kept them in most of the games last season. I'd imagine Denver's next phone call is to Dallas Clark.

I've heard $95 million/five years for Manning. Drew Brees' agent has the most orgasmic of smiles on his face right now.

[Doctor Detroit]

Denver?

I thought he'd be better off in Tennessee.

They were ready to change the name of the team to the Tennessee (Whatever Peyton Manning wants). Crazy.

I thought Deadspin put it best about John Elway:

He won two Super Bowls and is the greatest player in Broncos history, which gave him the clout needed to take out his big balls and wipe them across Tim Tebow's chin.

http://deadspin.com/5894540/john-elway-has-brass-balls

Thinking it over, if Willis McGahee can put up the kind of numbers he did last season, maybe Denver isn't much of a reach. Defense kept them in most of the games last season. I'd imagine Denver's next phone call is to Dallas Clark.

I've heard $95 million/five years for Manning. Drew Brees' agent has the most orgasmic of smiles on his face right now.

I think Denver with Manning could be downright frightening.

[Doctor Detroit]

Tebow to the Jets? Mmmk.

[Andy]

Tebow to the Jets? Mmmk.

That is strange.

And Sean Payton just got reamed.

Saints coach Sean Payton has been suspended for one year, former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight regular-season games, the team was fined $500,000 and lost two second-round draft picks (one in 2012 and '13) as a result of a bounty program conducted by the team during the 2009-11 seasons that targeted opposing players.

Saints assistant coach Joe Vitt also was suspended six games and fined $100,000. The NFL said in its statement that the suspensions for Payton, Loomis and Vitt are without pay.

Payton's suspension is effective April 1. Commissioner Roger Goodell will meet with Williams after the 2012 season and determine the coach's status.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/77181 ... r-bounties

[The Suburban Avenger]

Tebow to the Jets? Mmmk.

That is strange.

And Sean Payton just got reamed.

Saints coach Sean Payton has been suspended for one year, former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight regular-season games, the team was fined $500,000 and lost two second-round draft picks (one in 2012 and '13) as a result of a bounty program conducted by the team during the 2009-11 seasons that targeted opposing players.

Saints assistant coach Joe Vitt also was suspended six games and fined $100,000. The NFL said in its statement that the suspensions for Payton, Loomis and Vitt are without pay.

Payton's suspension is effective April 1. Commissioner Roger Goodell will meet with Williams after the 2012 season and determine the coach's status.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/77181 ... r-bounties

Easy for me to say, because it's not my $500,000, but it could've been worse. Always nice when the guy who lost his balls when Brett Favre was sending pictures of his junk to Jets employees gets tough.

[Andy]

What a buzzkill to read, although that doesn't make it any less relevant or probably spot on.

Lions great Lem Barney wasn't diagnosed with his first concussion until years after his Hall of Fame career ended, when an ophthalmologist looked into his eyes and saw spots on his brain.

"(He) told me that he saw where I had at least seven or eight concussions," Barney said. "One (spot) was as large as a silver dollar, and he said, 'You were out for a long time.' And there was about 30 minutes that I was out -- down at Tiger Stadium playing against the Bengals. It was just amazing.

"And then the other ones that he saw -- I can remember them. The ones I remember fondly was big Rufus Mayes from Ohio State, 6-9, 290, and he put his right knee right in the right temple when I came up to cut him down on a sweep. Next thing I know, it's like la-la land. Was out for a long time."

Barney is one of 106 retired players who filed suit against the NFL in Philadelphia federal court in January accusing the league of negligence when it came to treating and diagnosing head injuries. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Florida, Georgia and New York, some of which have been consolidated into one complaint.

The NFL is contesting the allegations, and commissioner Roger Goodell said at the Super Bowl last month the league is pioneering research "to make sure we understand all there is about brain injuries and brain disease."

Despite his legal claim, Barney, 66, considers himself lucky.

He hasn't suffered any of the debilitating mental diseases that have disabled many of his peers. He still works full-time in patient relations at Sinai Grace Hospital. And he's able to deal with the health problems he has -- he said he has been diagnosed with nerve conditions that cause tingling in his fingers, hands and forearms and limits him to 3-4 hours of sleep a night -- without the help of medicine.

"I call it blessed," Barney said. "It's that type of game. It's a lethal game. Again, as I tell people, 'Do you miss the game, Lem?' And sincerely, I don't miss the game."

In fact, Barney goes a step further.

"If I look at the game now and I look back on it retrospectively, if I had another choice I'd never played the game, at all, in my life," he said. "Never. Never. From all-city, all-state, all-conference, all-American, seven times All-Pro, I'm in eight Hall of Fames, it wouldn't be. It would be golf or tennis. I'm serious. Very serious."

A standout cornerback in 1967-77 with the Lions, Barney said the term concussion wasn't used during his playing days.

"I related concussions to boxers," he said. "I didn't put one and two together. You get KO'd on the football (field) like getting KO'd in the damn ring, it's a concussion. I didn't put that together because, again, no doctors from middle school through high school through college through the league called them concussions. They all called them dingers and stingers."

Now that he has seen firsthand how dangerous concussions can be, Barney, who testified at a Congressional hearing about the subject two years ago, said he worries about players like Lions running back Jahvid Best.

Best suffered two concussions last year, finished the season on injured reserve and has not been cleared by team doctors to return to football.

Lions general manager Martin Mayhew said Monday at a town hall meeting for season-ticket holders that he has "big plans" for Best this year and is "very optimistic" about his health.

Barney said if he were advising Best, he'd tell him to consider giving up the game.

"If he wants to play again, God bless him, but if he can come back and still be comprehensible and still be able to understand things and still live a real good life," Barney said. "I would tell him, if he's going to play, they've got to get some kind of special helmet for him because it's not going to take much longer if he keeps getting those dinger, stinger and bell-ringers as the boxers used to call them, or even the concussions, that he's going to be around here.

"I would tell him to maybe look at doing something else rather than coming back again after having those back-to-(back) concussions. It's a dangerous game. Like I said, I don't have anything against it, I just don't have anything for it now."

http://www.freep.com/article/20120324/S ... d|mostview

[The Suburban Avenger]

Let the countdown begin: Your 2012 NFL regular-season opener is Cowboys at Giants on Sept. 5.

[Andy]

Saying it on camera or when you know it's being recorded?

Smart.

Documentary filmmaker Sean Pamphilon, who directed the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Run Ricky Run," has released an audio recording he says is a speech Williams, the team's former defensive coordinator, gave to New Orleans players the night before the team lost to the 49ers in a playoff game in January.

The sample audio recording is a little less than four minutes long. The full speech was 12 minutes, according to Pamphilon.

Pamphilon was following the Saints last season while working on a documentary featuring former Saints special-teams player Steve Gleason, who is battling Lou Gehrig's disease.

Williams, who is suspended indefinitely by the league and is not appealing the penalty, can be heard in the audio recording instructing his defensive players to injure quarterback Alex Smith, running back Frank Gore, tight end Vernon Davis and receivers Michael Crabtree and Kyle Williams.

According to Pamphilon, Gregg Williams pointed to his chin while telling his players to hit Smith "right there," saying, "Remember me. I got the first one. I got the first one. Go get it. Go lay that m----------- out."

Williams uses one of his favorite slogans in the speech: "Kill the head and the body will die."

On Gore: "We've got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore's head. We want him running sideways. We want his head sideways."

On running back Kendall Hunter: "Little 32, we're going to knock the f--- out of him."

On Smith: "Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head. Early, affect the head. Continue, touch and hit the head."

On Kyle Williams: "We need to find out in the first two series of the game, that little wide receiver, No. 10, about his concussion. We need to f------ put a lick on him right now. He needs to decide. He needs to f------ decide."

On Crabtree: "We need to decide whether Crabtree wants to be a fake-ass prima donna, or he wants to be a tough guy. We need to find out. He becomes human when we f------ take out that outside ACL."

On Davis: "We need to decide how many times we can bull rush and and we can f------ put Vernon Davis' ankles over the pile."

When asked by ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter for comment on Williams' speech to his players, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello would not, other than to reiterate the Saints had been warned, saying, "Note for background these graphs from our March 21 press release announcing the discipline for Saints management."

The NFL had warned the Saints before the playoffs that it had reopened its investigation into the team's bounty program and the program needed to cease, but the warning apparently was ignored.

Saints coach Sean Payton was expected to testify Thursday during his appeals process that he directed Williams before the playoff game to ensure that no inappropriate conduct would occur, a source close to the process told Schefter.

Saints cornerback Malcolm Jenkins, in a post on his Twitter page, blasted Pamphilon for making the audio public.

His tweet: "Sean pamphilon is a coward and should be ashamed for taking advantage of Steve Gleason! How much did u get paid for that audio?"

Jenkins deleted the tweet later Thursday afternoon.

Pamphilon told Yahoo! Sports that he decided to release the audio because Williams' words, especially about Kyle Williams' concussion history, made him uncomfortable.

"Personally, suspension or not, it's probably best I'm never in a room with Gregg Williams and wonder if such an order crosses the lines of the aggressive, competitive spirit we all know and love about the sport and leans closer to a criminal act and therefore litigious matter," said Kenny Williams, Kyle's father and the GM of the Chicago White Sox, in a statement.

The film project Pamphilon is working on, "The United States of Football," he told Yahoo! Sports, "looks at the media's effect upon the way the game is played and celebrated, the proper coaching mentality and the effect of concussions and repetitive head trauma."

Said Pamphilon: "The thing that really got me was when he said the thing about No. 10 and concussions. I thought, 'Did he just say that?' That was the red flag for me. And then the comments by the Giants made it hit home even harder."

Giants players had said after their win over San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game that they had targeted Kyle Williams as someone who might fumble on big hits because of his history of concussions.

Thursday afternoon, Pamphilon released a statement on his film's website further explaining why he released the audio recording.

"If this story hadn't broken and been made public, I would not have shared this. I would not have compromised my personal relationships and risked damaging Steve Gleason's relationship with the Saints. I would have crafted these words and sentiments for another forum, perhaps years down the road. ...

"If it weren't for the fact I feel deeply that parents of children playing football MUST pay attention to the influence of men who will sacrifice their kids for W's, I would not have written this. ...

"Some will call me releasing this audio for fame or money grab. True haters will call it exploitation.

"People of character and conscience call it was it is: tru."

The Saints' defense certainly was in attack mode against the 49ers. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Saints sent five or more pass-rushers in 30 of Smith's 46 dropbacks (65.2 percent). It was the second-most number of times the Saints used such pressure last season and their third-highest rate of percentage of rushers.

Despite Gregg Williams' tough talk, the 49ers defeated the Saints 36-32 in what turned out to be his last game as New Orleans' defensive coordinator. He left the team to become the St. Louis Rams' defensive coordinator before the NFL's penalties were announced.

At the time of the league's ruling, Gregg Williams apologized and said he took full responsibility for his actions.

Payton (suspended for one year), general manager Mickey Loomis (eight games) and assistant head coach Joe Vitt (six games) had their appeals heard Thursday.

After Vitt's appeal was heard, his lawyer, David Cornwell, was asked about the audio tape. Cornwell said Payton viewed Williams' comments as "a rogue coach about to get fired."

"He was fired two days later," said Cornwell, who also serves as executive director of the NFL Coaches Association. "He was on the way out."

But when Williams left New Orleans for the Rams in January, nobody with the Saints characterized it as a firing. At the time, Payton said it was apparent shortly before the season ended that Williams, with his contract expiring, was likely going to join new St. Louis coach Jeff Fisher, an old friend. The Saints and Williams never discussed an extension, Payton said then.

Cornwell said Loomis and Payton told Williams, "There's no place for this in this organization or this league" after the NFL informed the Saints that it had reopened its investigation.

The NFL, however, in its statement last month announcing the penalties for team officials, said the GM and coach made only "cursory inquiries" into the possible presence of a bounty program.

Pamphilon said Payton and Loomis were not in the room when the recording of Williams was made.

The Saints also were fined $500,000 and forced to forfeit second-round picks in the 2012 and 2013 drafts. Discipline for some of the Saints players involved is forthcoming. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and league security met with NFL Players Association officials Monday to discuss the investigation and possible penalties for others.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/77780 ... ers-speech

[The Suburban Avenger]

NEW YORK (AP) -- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has rejected the appeals of coach Sean Payton and other New Orleans Saints officials stemming from the league's probe into the club's bounty system.
After hearing from Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt last week, Goodell decided Monday to uphold his initial sanctions, which include Payton's suspension for the entire 2012 season. That penalty begins April 16.
The Saints now must find an interim coach from candidates including top assistants as well as retired coach Bill Parcells.
Suspensions of eight games for Loomis and six games for Vitt will begin when the preseason ends. Also upheld were the team's $500,000 fine and loss of second-round draft picks this year and next.
Goodell says he would consider lowering the financial penalties, and "modifying the forfeiture" of the 2013 draft pick.

[Mulligan]

The Bills have four home games in December, although one of those "home" games is in Toronto. The schedule-maker must have a sense of humor.

[The Suburban Avenger]

Saints at Packers, Sept. 30. Already putting my people to work to get tickets.

[Doctor Detroit]

NEW ORLEANS -- The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana was told Friday that New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis had an electronic device in his Superdome suite that had been secretly re-wired to enable him to eavesdrop on visiting coaching staffs for nearly three NFL seasons, "Outside the Lines" has learned.

Sources familiar with Saints game-day operations told "Outside the Lines" that Loomis, who faces an eight-game suspension from the NFL for his role in the recent bounty scandal, had the ability to secretly listen for most of the 2002 season, his first as general manager of the Saints, and all of the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The sources spoke with "Outside the Lines" under the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals from members of the Saints organization.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/ ... home-games

The hits keep coming. More at link.